How does the culture of the students, faculty, and local community change so much that they can't get 2k to come to that arena to watch a team that since Murphy has been there is a solid team?
It must be sad for their small handful of diehards. EMU has a lot of the problems that many MAC schools face, except they're all worse at EMU.
It's a former normal school (teaching college) like all the directionals, Kent, BGSU, Balls, and NIU. These institutions aren't necessarily worse off academically, but they started uniquely focused on teaching and many still churn out a lot of teachers. Teachers don't make a ton of money or donate a lot to things like athletics.
Like all of the MAC, EMU is in the shadow of the Big Ten, but it's literal in Ypsilanti. Ann Arbor is a not unreasonable jog from EMU's athletic complex.
Like many MAC schools, EMU is not the first academic choice for most attendees. If they had the money, grades, etc. they'd be somewhere else. Worse still, they have a lot of commuter and non-traditional students. Hard to feel a lot of school spirit when you're just there for the sheepskin.
I don't like slamming EMU and I don't think it's helpful. I've been to Ypsi a couple of times, and I like it there. The facilities are great, they have a couple cool bars and the people are friendly. I feel for them. All that said, I see no real hope for them when it comes to attendance. I really think EMU will never have decent numbers of fans and no amount of winning will change that.